ASTER GDEM 2 README

ADVANCED SPACEBORNE THERMAL EMISSION AND REFLECTION RADIOMETER (ASTER) GLOBAL DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL (GDEM) VERSION 2

October 2011

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) is concurrently distributed from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC) in Japan and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Observing System (EOS) Data Information System (EOSDIS) Land Processes (LP) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) in the United States. Version 2 is produced with the same gridding and tile structure as Version 1. Improvements over version 1 include the use of additional scenes to improve coverage, a smaller correlation kernel to yield higher spatial resolution, and an improved water mask.

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CONTENTS
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. ii Contents ................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables and Figures ....................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4 ASTER GDEM Characteristics ................................................................................................ 5 Basic GDEM Characteristics .................................................................................................. 5 GDEM Package ..................................................................................................................... 5 QA File Description ................................................................................................................ 6 GDEM Validation Summary ..................................................................................................... 9 Disclaimer................................................................................................................................. 9 Use Constraints ....................................................................................................................... 9 User Services ..........................................................................................................................10 Acronym List ...........................................................................................................................11

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1 ASTER GDEM File Structure ....................................................................................... 6

Table 1 ASTER GDEM Characteristics ...................................................................................... 5 Table 2 Anomaly Replacement Sources .................................................................................... 8

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INTRODUCTION
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft Terra is capable of collecting in-track stereo using nadir- and aft- looking near infrared cameras. Since 2001, these stereo pairs have been used to produce single-scene (60- x 60-kilometer (km)) digital elevation models (DEM) having vertical (root-mean-squared-error) accuracies generally between 10- and 25-meters (m). On June 29, 2009, NASA and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of Japan released a Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) to users worldwide at no charge as a contribution to the Global Earth Observing System of Systems. This Version 1 ASTER GDEM (GDEM 1.0) was compiled from over 1.2 million scene-based DEMs covering land surface between 83 degrees () north (N) and 83 south (S) latitudes. GDEM 1.0 is a 1 arcsecond elevation grid divided and distributed as 1 x 1 tiles. A joint U.S.-Japan validation team assessed the accuracy of GDEM 1.0, augmented by a team of 20 cooperators selected through an Announcement of Opportunity. In summary, GDEM 1.0 was found to have an overall accuracy of around 20-m at the 95 percent (%) confidence level. The team also noted several artifacts associated with poor coverage, cloud contamination, water masking issues, and the stacking process used to produce GDEM 1.0 from individual scene-based DEMs (ASTER GDEM Validation Team, 2009). An independent horizontal resolution study estimated the effective spatial resolution of GDEM 1.0 to be on the order of 120-m. NASA and METI released a second version of the ASTER GDEM (GDEM 2) in midOctober, 2011. GDEM 2 has the same gridding and tile structure as GDEM 1.0, but benefits from the inclusion of additional scenes to reduce artifacts, higher horizontal resolution using a smaller correlation kernel (5 x 5 versus 9 x 9 used for GDEM 1.0), and an improved water mask. Also, a 5-m overall bias observed in GDEM 1.0 was removed in the newer version. GDEM 2 has an overall accuracy of around 17-m at the 95% confidence level, and a horizontal resolution on the order of 75-m.

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ASTER GDEM CHARACTERISTICS

BASIC GDEM CHARACTERISTICS
The ASTER GDEM covers land surfaces between 83 N and 83 S and is comprised of 22,702 1 x 1 tiles. Tiles that contain at least 0.01% land area are included. The ASTER GDEM is distributed as Georeferenced Tagged Image File Format (GeoTIFF) files, and in geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude). The data are posted on a 1 arc-second (approximately 30-m at the equator) grid and referenced to the 1984 World Geodetic System (WGS84)/1996 Earth Gravitational Model (EGM96) geoid. The basic characteristics of the GDEM collection are summarized in the following table.
Table 1 ASTER GDEM Characteristics
degree, DEM Digital Elevation Model, GeoTIFF Georeferenced Tagged Image File Format, m meter, DN digital number, WGS84 1984 World Geodetic System, EGM96 1996 Earth Gravitational Model, Tile Size Pixel Size Geographic Coordinate System 3601 x 3601 (1 x 1 ) 1 arc-second Geographic latitude and longitude GeoTIFF, signed 16-bit, in units of vertical meters DEM Output Format Referenced to the WGS84/EGM96 geoid Special DN Values Coverage -9999 for void pixels, and 0 for sea water body North 83 to South 83 , 22,702 tiles

GDEM PACKAGE
The basic unit of the ASTER GDEM is the 1 x 1 tile. Each GDEM tile includes a DEM (.dem), a quality assessment (QA, .num), and this readme file (.pdf), all of which are compressed into a single .zip. Both data files (.dem and .num) have dimensions of 3,601 samples by 3,601 lines, corresponding to the 1 x 1 tile area.

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Figure 1 ASTER GDEM File Structure

The names of individual data tiles refer to the latitude and longitude at the geometric center of the lower-left (southwest) corner pixel. For example, the coordinates of the lower-left corner of the tile ASTGTM_N00E006 tile are 0 degrees north latitude and 6 degrees east longitude. ASTGTM_N00E006_dem and ASTGTM_N00E006_num files accommodate DEM and QA data, respectively. The rows at the north and south edges, as well as the columns at the east and west edges, of each tile overlap and are identical to the edge row and column in the adjacent tile.

QA FILE DESCRIPTION
The QA file indicates the number of ASTER stereo scene pairs (stacking number) used to determine elevation at given pixel (if positive), or indicates the source of nonASTER elevation data used to replace bad values in the ASTER GDEM (if negative). Without adequate input, the automated cloud masking and statistical approaches used to select data for stacking are not totally effective in avoiding anomalous elevation values. The figure below shows the effect of the number of scene pairs used on

elevation accuracy, as compared to over 18,000 geodetic reference points within the Conterminous U.S. The mean (red) and root-mean-square errors (blue) are high for stacking values below 5, but stabilize between 5 and 10 scene pairs. Thus a low stacking number can suggest less accurate GDEM elevations.

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Figure 2 The relationship between mean and RMS error, and the stacking number (NUM), using
18,000 geodetic control points as a reference over the Conterminous U.S. The yellow line indicates the number of pixels having a given stacking number value; thus NUM values below 3 or above 23 occur rarely in this region. Note that the occurrence of low NUM values can be more common over persistently cloudy regions, particularly at high latitudes.

Negative values in the QA file indicate pixels that have been replaced with non-ASTER data. Replacement includes adjustment for offsets between the ASTER and reference DEM data. Each negative value is assigned to a specific replacement DEM, as shown in the table below.

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Table 2 Anomaly Replacement Sources

SRTM3 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 3, V3 Version 3, V2 Version 2, degrees, % percent, NED U.S. National Elevation Data, U.S. United States, CDED Canadian Digital Elevation Data, DEM Digital Elevation Model

Source

Description

GDEM QA Assignment

Posting: 3 arc seconds SRTM3 V3 Coverage: North 60 to South 56 (Void-filled version) Only about 90% tiles of SRTM V3 are void filled Posting: 3 arc seconds SRTM3 V2 Coverage: North 60 to South 56 NED Posting: 1 arc second -5 Coverage: Conterminous U.S. CDED Posting: 3 arc seconds for latitude; 3, 6 and 12 arc seconds for longitude, depending on latitude Coverage: all Canada territory Posting: 2 arc seconds Alaska DEM Coverage: all Alaska territory -11 -2 -1

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GDEM VALIDATION SUMMARY

NASA and METI, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC), and other collaborating members of the ASTER GDEM 2 Validation Team evaluated the new collection and compiled their findings in a report. This report can be downloaded from https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/ or from http://www.ersdac.or.jp/GDEM/E/3.html. Substantial improvements were noted in the quality of GDEM 2 over the original GDEM 1.0, due specifically to the increased number of acquired ASTER stereo pairs and refinements to the production algorithm (water masking, smaller correlation kernel size, bias removal). These improvements include increased horizontal and vertical accuracy, better horizontal resolution, reduced presence of artifacts, and more realistic values over water bodies.

DISCLAIMER
While the ASTER GDEM 2 benefits from substantial improvements over GDEM 1, users are nonetheless advised that the products still may contain anomalies and artifacts that will reduce its usability for certain applications. The data are provided as is and neither NASA nor METI/ERSDAC will be responsible for any damages resulting from use of the data.

USE CONSTRAINTS
ASTER GDEM 2 is subject to user acknowledgment of redistribution and citation policies required by METI and NASA. Before ordering ASTER GDEM data, users must agree to adhere to these policies, which can be found on the LP DAAC ASTER Product Policies Web page at https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/lpdaac/products/aster_policies. When

presenting or publishing ASTER GDEM data, users are required to include a citation stating, "ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA."

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USER SERVICES
ASTER GDEM users are welcome to contact either ERSDAC or LP DAAC support teams for information and assistance. Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center ASTER GDS User Service http://www.gds.aster.ersdac.or.jp/gds_www2002/service_e/inq.c_e/set_inq.c_e.html LP DAAC User Services https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/customer_service Email: lpdaac@usgs.gov Voice: 011 1 605 594 6116 Toll Free in U.S.: 888-573-3222 Facsimile: 011 1 605 594 6963

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ACRONYM LIST
Acronym

% AO ASTER CalTech CDED DAAC DEM DN EGM96 ERSDAC GDEM GDS GEOSS GeoTIFF km LP m METI N NASA NED PDF QA RMSE S SRTM U.S. USGS WGS84

Definition Degree Percent Announcement of Opportunity Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

California Institute of Technology Canadian Digital Elevation Data Distributed Active Archive Center Digital Elevation Model Digital Number 1996 Earth Gravitational Model
Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center

Global Digital Elevation Model Ground Data Systems Global Earth Observation System of Systems Georeferenced Tagged Image File Format Kilometer Land Processes Meter
Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry

North
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Elevation Data Portable Document Format Quality Assurance Root Mean Square Error South Shuttle Radar Topography Mission United States U.S. Geological Survey 1984 World Geodetic System

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